A power control circuit may include a power management circuit, a driver circuit, control logic, diagnostic logic, or other circuits. The power management circuit may be used for generating and/or regulating power supply voltages. The driver circuit may be used to control devices that generate power, such as switch-mode power supplies, and can be used to control devices that consume power, such as motors. A motor driver can have a controller that generates a pulse-width modulated signal used to produce drive signals for driver switches for different phases of a motor. The pulse-width modulated signal can be generated based in-part on an internal oscillator of a component.
Power control circuits may be implemented on semiconductor substrates as integrated circuit (IC) chips, such as power control ICs. Due to the small footprint and energy efficiencies of power control ICs, power control ICs are widely used in various applications and products across different industries, e.g., such as consumer electronics, industrial control, medical equipment, aviation, and automotive.
Although semiconductor ICs generally have high reliability, device failure may still occur over time due to various reasons such as component aging, exposure to adverse environment (e.g., excessive heat, moisture, dust, mechanical stress), or improper usage (e.g., over-voltage or under-voltage). For mission critical applications such as automotive control, it is advantageous to detect device failure at early stage, such that safety procedures and/or protocols may be performed to remedy or alleviate the device failure. For example, redundancy circuits/devices may be activated to take over the functions of the failed devices.